Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Arizona legislature: the strike-everything amendment summed up in two words

One of the pitfalls of writing this blog and being otherwise involved with and observant of the legislative process in AZ is that one becomes familiar with the terminology used and forget that not everyone is as familiar with the terms being used.  As such, occasionally explanations are needed, and being somewhat lazy, and more than somewhat a wiseass, I am constantly on the lookout for short, funny, and effective ways of describing a political concept, process, or result.

Arizona's "strike-everything amendment" (also known as a striker) is one such concept that cries out for a pithy and snarky description. 

The striker is a process in the Arizona legislature whereby the language in a (usually) harmless measure is completely replaced by new language, (usually) turning it into something dreadful.

Also usually, the new language is from a bad bill that has died, so basically, a strike-everything amendment is taking crap from one body (or bill) and placing it into another body (or bill).

Turns out there is already a term for that, for a legitimate medical procedure -

Fecal Transplant.

And as a bonus, while the medical term and the procedure it describes is icky, it's far less icky than the reality of the Arizona legislature.

(hat tip to the Boston Globe for finding this, and to my cousin for posting a link to the Globe article on her Facebook page)

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